Well the workweek starts again. Ugh. It's just been INSANELY busy + tons of people calling out sick this winter. Really wearing on us all. Today was a 16 hour day - started with a 2 hour lead meeting, then a busy shift culminating in (another) emergency surgery. Wrapped that up right at the end of shift, was there about 1/2 hour late so not too bad considering everything. Food was a little scattered cuz we were so busy:

Last night was a busy night, but it was the kind of busy that I thrive on. Lots going on right when I got to work and really got a chance to put my prioritizing, multitasking, efficiency, and leadership skills to use. 3 hours went by smoothly and disasters were averted while moral stayed pretty good and it went by SO FAST. I couldn't believe all that had happened in those short 3 hours! A bit more calmness and got breaks in. Then another flurry started at 1am and lasted through til 6a. Not so hectic but kept us moving. The night was over in a flash. Really lousy situation right at the end of the day though that basically made me want to go home and just get totally drunk. Let's just say its a good thing that I get off work at 8am and the liquor store doesn't open until 10a and I'm not about to go BACK out on the roads after getting home to get alcohol.

Food has been great this week. I had some leftovers from LAST week + leftovers of my steak from Valentine's to tide me through this workweek. Made it super easy. I have a couple ideas for this weekend/next week so we'll see what happens. I have moved quite slow into P2 this time around. Most days I have just 1 starch and 1 fruit. Occasionally 2 of one or the other. Trying to keep eating dairy and beans each days too. Most starches have been sweet potato (I love it so!), some brown rice, and an occasional WW English muffin. Haven't had any trigger/sensitivity issues with any of it. Fruits have been pears (mostly - they're on sale/in season right now), apples, and strawberries. In this next week I will try to up my intake to more consistently 2 fruit + 2 starch/day. I plan on adding some WW pasta to the mix and the occasional banana.

Couponing has been incredible! Last week there was such great deals (free salad and tofu!), and this last weekend was amazing too Check out my other blog: http://www.dclissa17.wordpress.com for more couponing posts and the pics/lists of what I bought over the weekend for a grand total of $0.66 combined! Best finds:

Then, today I stopped at the little local neighborhood grocery store around the corner from my house because on their marquee they had cauliflower advertised for $1.29 EACH! Love it when cauli is priced by the head, not by the pound - always ends up being SO much cheaper! (usually the best price is $0.80/lb so a head is usually a minimum of $2.50). Much of these kind of stores can be rather pricey but whenever I stop in I check the produce section and also look around the "edges" of the store for clearance deals. For healthy eating, always check out store edges - produce, dairy, meat departments. I found lots of great deals...check what I got for $5.78. Yes, that's right, LESS THAN $6!!

(3) heads of cauliflower - $3.87(I'm buying fresh brussel sprouts for $0.99/lb at another store this weekend, gonna make a huge batch of roasted cauli+brussel sprouts w/ one head. Cauli mashed potatoes with another head. One left for raw snacking +/- steamed/roasted mixed veggies)(1) 8oz whole crimini mushrooms - $0.99 on clearance(planning to make a WW linguine + sauteed mushrooms + onion w/ shaved asparagus + parmesan)(1) Zoi greek yogurt - $0.69 on clearance (wanted to try this brand)(4) bananas - $0.23 TOTAL (0.19/lb on clearance!) I think this is probably a common price markdown which is AWESOME!!

I also have one portion of chili leftover + 1 portion of steak dinner + 2 bags of salad. Yay!!

Since most meals are P1, will incorporate WW english muffin or cereal into breakfasts most days. On days with only one starch in meals, will have Triscuits w/ cheese or hummus in a snack. Fruit will be incorporated in snacks for the most part.

An ok start to the weekend. Saturday I ended up going to bed ~2-3pm after a few mimosas. Got up around midnight? Didn't do much as this is my "free" day when I don't plan anything due to not knowing exactly when I'll be sleeping. Didn't do meals as much as just snacking through the night, but this is about what I ended up with....

I feel like there was more, but can't remember.......oh yeah, some raisins....

Today I am STILL on a night schedule (oh well, guess that's how it will roll this week, better than being on an early morning schedule). I did manage to pry myself out of bed and get ready and go square dancing so that's good! I do love going dancing, it just always seems to fall at the wrong time of my sleep schedule (my fault) so it's hard to convince myself when I have to get out of bed/stay up when I'm tired in order to go. I was running fairly late though so I didn't get a real breakfast. Unfortunately it was pie and ice cream social night at the dance so NO good options there either, so my day started off not awesome, SB-wise.

B: WW toast w/ 2Tbsp PB S: slice of strawberry-rhubarb pie......then a slice of cherry pie. HOMEMADE. Yeah I'm paying for those in sugar munchies now. But so good.now I'm back home.....S: 1.5c raw veggies w/ 1/4c homemade hummus. (hilarious to me that I love my hummus and yet I'm 5 weeks into SB this time around and this is the first time I've made it.), LC cheese, 1 glass raspberry lemonadeL: I have zucchini going bad so I'm gonna make zucchini lasagna - yum! And eat it with a salad cuz it's a lot of protein and I have free salads that will start going bad soon.S: A banana and greek yogurt w/ SF jello powderD: Last leftover steak with mashed sweet potato and 2c. brussel sprouts in "butter" sauce

Well Monday was a weird day. I didn't get a lot of sleep on Sunday since I got up to go dancing, and then Monday I didn't go to bed until 10-11am and had to get up at 3pm to meet my trainer. It just fell at the worst time for me! So not much sleep at all. Went straight to the gym, didn't really eat anything before going. The session went ok, it was only a 1/2 hour and we did a lot of shoulder stuff. Then I did 20min on the bike. Got home and did not stop, did not pass go. I went directly out to go grocery shopping, I had 3 stops to make, all close together. Back home by 6pm and I was pooped. Had some dinner and just zonked out shortly after that in my chair. Knew I should try to stay up since I was on a good schedule to go back to work but I was too tired to force myself into it. I will pay for that on Wednesday but OH well. Really didn't eat much yesterday since I wasn't conscious very much! Let's see what i can recall.....

Today I woke up at about 3-4am. Grand. The absolute worst schedule for me to be on. I have two options: be up til midday and then try to go to sleep until midevening to get back on a night schedule tonight and go to bed as early on Wednesday as I can, getting a short sleep before work Wed night. Or try to stay up as long as possible tonight (ideally like 2a or later) to then sleep til midday on Wednesday and be back on my work schedule. With my luck I won't fall asleep until early evening and be up at 6a on Wednesday, completely screwing it up. Sigh. And it was going so well. Stupid gym session messed it all up. At least I have a good food plan for next week. Today has just started, so here's the plan so far:

Well I did good on getting back on track sleep-schedule-wise! I went to bed around noon-1p on Tuesday, was actually pretty sleepy. Unfortunately my rental property was having some plumbing issues so of course the plumbers called in the middle of the afternoon while I was sleeping to confirm the repairs. And I got another business call as i had the phone sitting by me in the bed. Oh well. I ended up prying myself out of bed around 9p-ish. Just wanted to sleep like 12 hours but that would put me totally off schedule again. I (now) have a quick PAH client to see at 8a so I figure I'll plan on going to the gym at like 6:30-7:30a, then off to the client's house, then home and to bed. We'll see how I do at that!

This weekend has been pretty chill. I've actually had like 5 days "off" (well 5 sets of being awake in any case!). Many of my weekends (which are technically 4 days off) I only manage 3 real sets. So it feels like I've been away from work for a long time! I haven't accomplished much in the grand scheme of things, but I did my grocery shopping, watched my shows, did all my online browsing, made a couple of meals for next week, have a food plan for next week, did some chores, went dancing, got to the gym 3 times.....I think it's gone pretty good!

I made a new recipe tonight from the Martha Stewart Living magazine: WW Linguine w/ mushrooms and asparagus. It was really quite good and totally SB approved! Here's the recipe:

2Tbsp EVOO1lb sliced crimini mushrooms3 leeks (I subbed 2 stalks celery + 1/3 onion), chopped1c. chicken or veggie broth/stock8oz WW linguine (or spaghetti)8oz asparagus, shaved lengthwise into "curls" - yeah whatever. I sliced them best I could with my cheese slicer. If I had a mandoline I might have actually been able to make "curls"Salt & pepper to tasteParmesan cheese

Heat EVOO in large skillet on high. Saute mushrooms, leeks (celery/onion) for ~7 minutes until cooked through. Add chicken stock and 1/2 tsp salt, turn heat to medium and simmer until reduced by half. At the same time, bring water and 1Tbsp EVOO to a boil in large saucepan, add pasta and cook until at desired firmness. Drain pasta and add to skillet w/ veggies once broth is reduced. Add 1/2 of the asparagus and toss w/ salt/pepper. Dish onto plates and top with some of the remaining asparagus and shredded/shaved parmesan. Makes around 4-5 servings!

This was really good! no big sauce, just a flavorful broth to coat the pasta. I didn't realize til this was done that it doesn't actually include a protein! Would be good to have with baked/grilled chicken. I ended up having a side salad w/ tuna as an accompanient.

Next up tonight: Lentil soup! I found a simple recipe on the boards and plan to make that. It doesn't have any meat in it either, so I'm trying to decide if I want to have just a smaller bowl of it along with a serving of eggplant lasagna (which is high in protein but only ~1c veggies) or if I want to add some ground turkey to the soup. I have a bunch of cooked ground turkey so I may try that in just a single cup of soup to see how I like it. We'll see.

Tonight was just...ugh. Went to work with the best of intentions and it was just an epic fail. The night was crazy busy and lots of surgical procedures and critical cases as well as a relief vet. The relief vet was all over the place trying to multitask too much and things getting lost along the wayside. The other staff were not doing great...2 fairly inexperienced assistants and one lazy tech who can't think critically, outside of the box, or have any leadership/organizational skills. There was just too much going on for me to keep on top of everything/everyone it was like swimming and swimming and never reaching shore. No huge disasters, just a continual level of chaos and things taking too long to get done. I hate these days because it just feels like I have failed as the senior tech and the lead tech and let everyone down, even though they don't see it that way. Tomorrow is another day but really I just want the week over. Sucks.

Ok, this journal has ended up being my work venting journal as well as SB and I am going to try and curb that a little bit. There is a lot going on at work right now that obviously I NEED to vent/talk about but this isn't really the forum to go into details, which I what I think I kinda need. It's hard to vent but stay vague enough to not distress anyone from the boards that is reading this. Not to imply that this is a private/secret journal, I welcome any readers/commenters from SB! But the nature of my work (emergency/critical care veterinary technician) means that details can be upsetting emotionally as well as a little gross sometimes for the average person! Soooo...I'm going to try to stick more to health topics here - food, exercise, sleep schedule, etc. If anyone WANTS to know more about me, my life, my work or get to know me personally, you can follow me more at my personal blog: www.dclissa17.wordpress.com. I also post a lot of my couponing trips there - with pictures! So it can be fun if you're wanting to know more about couponing and how it CAN fit into a SB lifestyle

Tonight was much better at work, despite the fact that when I was finally wound down enough to go to bed (@ noon), they started doing construction in the apartment that ADJOINS MY BEDROOM WALL. Like - sawing and hammering and such. Finally ~1p they stopped and I got to sleep - until 5pm when the alarm went off. So not a great way to start my day. Luckily most of the patients from the night before had been discharged and it was a much calmer night all in all. No procedures, no relief staff, solid hard-working support staff, much lighter caseload. Phew!! Still not exactly a lazy day and still didn't get all the little things done, but everything important and best of all - stayed in control of things!

SB is almost second nature now. I am really glad that i have had a couple of pre-made meals to eat leftovers from all week, both lunch @ work and dinner when I get home in the morning. It has really made all the difference. Since I started SB 6 weeks ago, I have found 4 new meal recipes that I love that all make 4+ servings = perfect! And there are still several of my "old" meals that I haven't even made yet this time around! I am so happy with how everything has been going.

Your work sounds crazy and I think it's good you can vent about it here. I've used my SB journal for lots of venting over the last 2.5 years and it's actually fun to look back on it now and then to see where I was at. It shows growth. Your food looks great. Hope they stop banging beside you so you can get decent sleep. My sister is a shift worker (police) and she says that the shifts are what screw her up all the time. Hang in there.

Yeah, sometimes just doing a little written yelling and overemphasizing (even vaguely) can be very therapeutic! While my schedule is a little insane, I really don't mind it. I only work 3 days a week, all in a row, and have 4 days off. My schedule is the same days every week, many shift workers or people in the human medical field have the same long hours but with rotating/shifting schedules so it could be worse. And I actually really enjoy working the overnight shift for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is that I am NOT a morning person when it comes to work! Tonight work was extremely slow, only 2 very stable patients in the whole hospital so we were very lazy and did a lot of sitting around/chatting/overall discussing the stressors lately/venting. Even though we were not very productive in some ways, I think taking some decompress time by NOT being productive working-wise was the right thing to do because I think it is helpful for everyone's moral. Obviously we did the important work and took care of the patients, just didn't worry about "staying busy" or finding cleaning projects or whatnot. It was a very nice end of my workweek!

Today I am staying up til mid-late afternoon so that I will wake up around 4-5a. Going to clip coupons, go grocery shopping first thing in the morning, go to the gym, and then chill for a few hours. From 1-4p there is an Alzheimer's benefit dance that I am going to go to which should be a ton of fun! This will put me solidly on a day schedule for my days off. I have a gym session on Monday and a massage on Tuesday (as well as more grocery shopping probably!) so I have something every day that will make me get up and dressed and out of the house....I am so much more productive when that happens!

I have a couple more bowls of lentil soup but then I need to come up with 2-3 meals for my days off/next week. I think I will have salmon w/ brown rice & roasted cauli/brussel sprouts for one, a tofu veggie stirfry for one, and......???? for the last. I might make another eggplant lasagna because I have leftover opened pasta sauce and cottage cheese, spinach that is starting to go bad, and I bought 2 eggplants last weekend. I have soooo much fresh veggies in my fridge right now!! I need to make sure I meal plan accordingly to not let them go to waste.

Today is wrapping up and I've been just as productive as I wanted to be, which is a lovely thing. I went to bed last night around 5p, got up about 4:30a...sleep was soooo nice! Put together my coupons for Albertson's, had some breakfast and chilled for an hour or so. Then went out and hit a couple of stores, got home about 10a. Chilled for a couple of hours, then got ready and went to a benefit square dance from 1-4p. Had so much fun! I danced the majority of the time, had a great SB-friendly lunch, got lots of compliments on my dress, and got some great exercise and sociality. Walked up to the local grocery with the dog and bought a bottle of champagne after I got home just because I felt like it! Had a light dinner and just chilling drinking my champagne and watching Mamma Mia. Hope everyone had a wonderful Sunday!

Oh, I am so tired! Was up far too early on Wed morning, tried to go to bed mid-morning - nope! Half-slept in that vivid dreaming you're not sleeping plane for a couple hours and then just got up at noon. Did a bunch of housecleaning, made 2 sets of meals for the week, did some yoga, watched some TV and got ready for work. Luckily its not too busy but I've had 2 patients on blood transfusions all night which require continual close monitoring. I am SO not feeling the whole working thing today! Food is good though.....

B: scrambled egg on WW toast, coffee (no veggie as I forgot I needed to go in 30 min earlier and had to run out of the house with egg in hand)L: eggplant lasagna w/ side salad, coffeeS: strawberry yogurt w/ granola, coffeeS2: appleD: baked salmon w/ whole grain rice-a-roni, roasted cauli/brussel sprouts

Some of the non-SB things will be given to coworkers: (PB Cheerios, some of the juice, all but one of the Doritos) The best SB buys: 2 big jars of baby dill pickles, 16 cups of plain greek yogurt, 4 cans of beans, 3 V8 fusion juices, and 2 packs of whole grain artisan tortillas. All for free or nearly so!

A pretty quiet night at work all things considered. Stayed busy most of the night without any big disasters. Started the night with a routine surgery (dog who ate some carpet), followed that with a blood transfusion, then just maintaining the status quo for the rest of the night. Was nice to just have some "normal" for once! Couldn't sleep well yesterday so I was super tired. Tonight I'm gonna be so wiped which means I probably won't get to the gym after work on Sat. morning. I've decided that while the gym is good and important, forcing myself to go when I am physically and mentally drained after a long workweek and not enough sleep is just asking for injury. I will definitely go Sat night when i get up or on Sunday.

Food is much the same as yesterday. Having 2 go-to meals that feed 3-6 servings for the workweek has been working really well this time around. I am not remotely "bored" with P2 nor struggling to stay with the plan. I have an occasional cheat meal or heavy sugar day but nothing too out of control, and I pick right back up again without any crazy cravings.

B: last of the lentil soup from last week, HB egg, coffee, cinnamon apple spice teaL: eggplant lasagna w/ side salad, coffeeS: strawberry greek yogurt, coffee, 4-5 Hershey's kissesS2: LC cheese w/ 5 triscuitsD: baked salmon w/ whole grain rice-a-roni, roasted cauli/brussel sprouts, cinnamon apple spice teaS: going to head to bed shortly but I think I'll have a banana (no fruit so far today! wow! I really haven't been craving fruit too much tihs time around. Sure that will change as it heads into berry season ), I may have some Doritos. I saved a bag (ok 3) for myself but will try and parcel them out as treats. Honestly when you look at the ingredients, they aren't the WORST thing ever. So I tell myself. I figure at the end of an otherwise low-starch day, not a big deal.

Sounds like you're doing well on the food. I saw on the 'doctors' show the question of whether you are totally exhausted, should you sleep or go to the gym? The answer was sleep... so don't feel guilty for not getting to the gym. Sleep is more important so you can really enjoy your work outs when you get there.

I'm off to Mexico for 2 weeks on Tuesday. Looking forward to some sunshine and time with my DH and kiddies....

Ugh.....this weekend has NOT been good SB-wise. Not enough real meals, too much snacking, too much drinking, too much cheating, no exercise. It's not a total loss, just so much worse than how WELL I've been doing. For accountability's sake, here's today so far: